Shatta Wale
Dancehall artiste Shatta Wale has finally apologised to Ghanaians for his involvement in the scuffle that ensued between his Shatta Movement (SM) crew and Bhim Nation crew at the 20th Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA).
According to him, he meant “no harm”, and described the whole incident as “unfortunate.”
In a statement to clarify events leading to the scuffle which temporary disrupted the awards ceremony for over 20 minutes, Shatta said it is “illogical” for anyone to think that he acted the way he did on the night to ruin the event.
Pandemonium broke out on the VGMA stage when Shatta Wale and his SM crew rushed on stage when Stonebwoy was about giving his acceptance speech for winning the reggae/dancehall artiste of the year.
This led to a confrontation and Stonebwoy pulled out a handgun in self-defence.
The confrontation resulted in Stonebwoy pulling out a handgun in self-defence. The incident triggered some high-level officials, diplomats and celebrities to leave the event for fear of their lives.
The two artistes were arrested on Sunday following the scuffle, but they were granted police enquiry bail on Monday after spending a night in police custody.
Both artistes, who have not seen eye-to-eye for years now, appeared in court on Wednesday with some family members and scores of supporters.
Prior to their arrest, Stonebwoy had released two statements apologising for the incident.
On Tuesday night, Shatta Wale also released his apology and gave clarification on what happened.
Below is the full statement:
Management of Shatta Wale wishes to render a sincere apology to all patrons of the 20th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), viewers of the event around the world, organizers of the awards, Charterhouse Productions, title sponsors, Vodafone Ghana and all Shatta Movement fans worldwide for the unfortunate incident that happened during the recently held VGMA. We further apologize for all the inconveniences caused on the night and afterwards.
As planned and communicated to the organizers on the morning of the event, Shatta Wale was going to sit amongst his fans in the standard ticket section of the auditorium. Due to circumstances beyond the control of the team, Shatta Wale arrived at the venue after the event had started and had been announced as winner of two categories (reggae dancehall song of the year and highlife song of the year). This accounted for Shatta Wale’s inability to receive the awards he won himself.
After the announcement of the winner of the reggae dancehall musician of the year category, Shatta Wale decided to reposition to the VIP section to meet his father and a dignitary who had asked to see him. A member of his entourage then suggested to him to join Stonebwoy on stage to congratulate him on his win in the spirit of unity, as he had done at the 2015 4Syte Music Video Awards. He agreed and asked his security team to lead him onto the stage only to be met with confrontation instigated by Blakk Cedi, manager of Stonebwoy.
We wish to state that Shatta Wale accepted a call from Charterhouse to join forces to make the 20th anniversary of the VGMA memorable and has over the period demonstrated his commitment to this course (sic) by performing at the VGMA Nominees’ Jam in Kumasi and VGMA Experience Concert at the Independence Square. Shatta Wale extensively campaigned for votes and promoted the anniversary celebration using his various social media platforms. It will be very illogical for him to deliberately act in a manner to ruin and mar the same event he has spent a lot of resources to promote and urged his fans to attend. Shatta Wale meant no harm and considers this incident as unfortunate.
By Francis Addo